Workday

Workday, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company that provides financial management, human capital management (HCM), planning, and student information systems. The company was founded in 2005 by David Duffield and Aneel Bhusri, after Oracle acquired their previous company, PeopleSoft. Workday officially launched its services in 2006, offering an alternative to traditional on-premise software through a fully cloud-based model.

Workday went public in October 2012, achieving a market valuation of about $9.5 billion at the time of its initial public offering. Since then, Workday has expanded its customer base to organisations of many sizes, including global enterprises, governments, and universities. By 2023, Workday reported having more than 10,000 customers worldwide. In 2024, Workday entered the Fortune 500 and S&P 500 lists.

Workday follows a subscription-based business model, where revenue is recognised over multi-year service agreements. The company provides two major product updates each year and operates through its own data centres alongside cloud infrastructure services such as Amazon Web Services.

Workday has made several strategic acquisitions to strengthen its product offerings. In 2018, the company acquired Adaptive Insights for $1.55 billion and renamed the product Workday Adaptive Planning, expanding its capabilities in budgeting, forecasting, and planning. In 2021, Workday acquired VNDLY to support external workforce and vendor management. 

In 2024 and 2025, Workday focused on AI-driven platforms and automation, including the acquisition of Evisort (renamed Workday Contract Intelligence and Workday Contract Lifecycle Management). Workday later introduced the Workday Custom AI Model Library for CLM, featuring over 120 pre-built AI models to analyse and extract key terms, obligations, and financial conditions from contracts.

In 2025, Workday also acquired Sana, an AI-native learning and knowledge platform. This acquisition supports Workday’s goal of offering conversational AI agents, personalised learning, and a new unified “front door” user experience across HR, finance, and workflows.

Workday, Inc. was founded in March 2005 by David Duffield and Aneel Bhusri after Oracle acquired PeopleSoft, the company they had previously led. Their aim was to build a cloud-based alternative to traditional enterprise resource planning software, which at the time was mainly installed on company servers. Workday launched its first product in 2006, starting with human capital management and later adding financial management capabilities.

In 2008, Workday acquired Cape Clear Software to strengthen its integration technology, and later the same year the company moved its headquarters to Pleasanton, California. During this period, Workday began to win major enterprise clients, including Flextronics and Aviva. The company also continued raising investment capital, securing funding rounds in 2009 and 2011 that supported further product development and expansion.

Workday went public in October 2012, listing on the New York Stock Exchange and reaching a valuation of around $9.5 billion at the time of its IPO. The company continued expanding its product portfolio and entered new sectors, including higher education, by launching a student information system in 2016.

A major development occurred in August 2018 when Workday acquired Adaptive Insights for $1.55 billion. This acquisition introduced Workday Adaptive Planning, enabling organisations to manage budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning alongside HR and finance data. Workday later acquired VNDLY in 2021 to support external workforce and vendor management.

From 2023 onwards, Workday increased its focus on artificial intelligence and automation. Workday acquired Evisort in 2024 and integrated it into its platform as Workday Contract Intelligence and Workday Contract Lifecycle Management. In 2025, Workday released the Custom AI Model Library for CLM, which included more than 120 pre-trained models that could extract, classify, and summarise contract terms, financial conditions, renewal clauses, data privacy requirements, and other key elements across a range of contract types.

Also in 2025, Workday acquired Sana, an AI-native learning and knowledge platform. This acquisition enabled Workday to offer AI-driven learning, knowledge retrieval, and conversational workforce support, positioning Sana’s AI agent as a new interface for accessing Workday and other enterprise systems. The acquisition reflected a strategic move toward “agent-based” work, where employees interact with systems through conversational AI rather than complex menus.

Meanwhile, Workday faced ongoing legal developments. In 2023, it was named in a lawsuit alleging bias in algorithmic hiring tools, and in 2025, a U.S. court allowed age discrimination claims to proceed as a collective action, requiring Workday to disclose certain client usage details.

Leadership changes also took place. While Aneel Bhusri and Chano Fernandez served as co-CEOs for a period, Carl Eschenbach became co-CEO in 2022 and later the sole CEO in 2024, with Bhusri transitioning to executive chair.

The mission of Workday is to provide organisations with a single, reliable, and easy-to-use cloud platform for managing people, finances, planning, and operations. Workday focuses on helping companies work more efficiently, make better decisions, and adapt to change in real time. The company aims to support employees, managers, and leaders with clear data, simple tools, and secure systems. Workday’s mission also includes developing ethical artificial intelligence that improves work processes while reducing manual effort. It continues to expand its technology to help organisations operate smoothly, manage global workforces, and plan for the future with confidence and accuracy.

Workday’s vision is to create a unified and intelligent system that connects people, financial activities, learning, and business operations in one platform. It aims to support organisations of all sizes in managing their day-to-day activities while preparing for future needs. The company plans to expand the use of artificial intelligence and automation so that work becomes simpler, faster, and more informed. Workday also aims to give every employee and leader access to useful information when they need it. The long-term vision is to become the central platform that supports decision-making, growth, and sustainable organisational development worldwide.

Workday has earned consistent recognition across ethics, workplace culture, product leadership, and industry performance. It has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere multiple times, including in 2024. The company has also been recognised by Just Capital as one of America’s Most Just Companies. Workday has received Best in KLAS awards for ERP and Talent Management solutions across several years. It has been named a Leader in multiple Gartner Magic Quadrant reports, including Financial Planning Software, Cloud HCM Suites, and Cloud ERP for service-focused enterprises. Workday has also received cultural recognition from Comparably for Best Global Culture, Best Company Outlook, Diversity, Women, and Happiest Employees.

Workday provides a wide range of cloud-based enterprise applications designed to help organisations manage people, finance, planning, and daily operations in one integrated system. All Workday products run in the cloud, which means customers do not need to manage complex servers or on-premise installations. Updates are delivered regularly, and data is kept in a single, unified model, allowing real-time visibility across the organisation.

One of Workday’s core products is Workday Human Capital Management (HCM). This system supports the entire employee lifecycle, including recruitment, onboarding, skills management, performance, payroll, and workforce analytics. The HCM platform is used by organisations to manage global workforces with consistent processes. The recruitment and talent management tools help organisations hire, develop, and retain employees. Workday’s payroll solution is available in multiple regions and can also integrate with local payroll partners when needed.

Another key product is Workday Financial Management, which handles general ledger, accounting, expenses, asset management, revenue management, procurement, and financial reporting. The financial system is designed to give organisations real-time visibility into spending and performance, instead of waiting for monthly or quarterly reporting cycles. Workday also supports financial consolidation and regulatory reporting, making it suitable for global organisations with multiple legal entities.

Workday Adaptive Planning, formerly Adaptive Insights, is designed for budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning. It allows finance, HR, sales, and operational teams to collaborate using shared data models. The system supports scenario planning, allowing organisations to test different assumptions and prepare for changes. Because it is cloud-based, updates to plans and forecasts can be made quickly and seen immediately across teams.

Workday also provides tools for external workforce and vendor management through Workday VNDLY. This system helps organisations manage contractors, consultants, and other non-employee workers. It supports request workflows, contract management, vendor relationships, and compliance tracking.

Contracts and document review are handled by Workday Contract Intelligence and Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM). After the acquisition of Evisort, Workday introduced AI-driven tools to read, extract, and summarise contract terms. In 2025, Workday released a Custom AI Model Library with more than 120 pre-built models that analyse clauses such as renewal conditions, pricing schedules, data privacy requirements, and service obligations. These tools aim to reduce manual contract review and support legal, finance, and procurement teams.

Workday has expanded strongly into AI-based learning and knowledge support. In 2025, Workday acquired Sana, an AI-native learning and knowledge platform. This allows Workday to offer AI-generated learning content, personalised training, and conversational assistance. The Sana technology also provides a new AI “front door” interface that allows users to search for information across multiple systems and automate routine tasks using natural language prompts.

Workday also offers a Student Information System for universities, which manages admissions, academic records, financial aid, and student progress. It is designed to connect student administration with HR and finance operations on the same platform.

The Workday Platform includes integration tools, APIs, low-code development through Workday Build, and the Workday Marketplace where customers can access partner applications and extensions. Workday also provides consulting, support, education, and deployment services to help organisations adopt its products effectively.